Turn 11 - Third Man on the 9F - again - and some Route Knowledge

I've learned recently that the kindly NNR Roster Clerk has made sure that cleaners are generally rostered Third Man as the season draws to a close, as a Christmas present - which is why I believe I have five Third Man turns on the trot. Rather a nice Christmas present!

This time, it's a green timetable which means we have four round trips at slightly different times, with no diesel service - we have the line to ourselves today. Both the signal boxes at Weybourne and Holt are closed, which means we have to work the ground frames to get out of the yard and to run around at Holt.

The clocks have now gone back and it is a bit lighter when I arrive on shed at 05:45. Fitter Bob is on the early turn this week, and he is nursing a sore head. We have the 9F again and it's great to be on a familiar loco; we have no cleaner today so we will have to see how it goes as it is all down to me until the rest of the crew arrive at 07:30.

The smokebox needs a clean but all is well in there; I have half a glass in both water gauges and the firebox has had a warming fire in it which still has a bit of life in it so I can just shake it through the grate on the rocking levers. Bob has taken out the baffle plate when he lit the warming fire the night before and there is wood, rags and paraffin already on board.

I set about laying the fire, covering the whole grate with a layer of coal, a layer of wood and then a few rags - it lights up easily as usual, and I open the main steam valve at the manifold and test the blower.

Next, I climb up the ladder on the tender and have a look at the water level - it's way down and I need to get the hose in there. I'm Third Man again today, so I'm keen to make sure I have all the equipment the Fireman brings on board - the flags and spare glasses are there, but I need a bucket of cold water and to sort out the lamps.

We are going to be running into dusk on the green service and there is a dining train this evening, so a crew will relieve us at 16:30 and do another two round trips starting at 18:30 - we will need lamps, and working lamps at that. There needs to be a white one on the leading end of the loco and a red one on the trailing end when we are light engine, though this will be replaced by a red lamp on the end of the train when we have a rake on the back.

The lamps are kept in a locked store in the yard, so I head down there with my keys selecting two matching black lamps. I open them both and take out the burners.

The burner has a windshield around it with the wick adjusting wheel outside, so you can adjust the flame without it blowing about:

You fold this back and you can see the lamp:

Undo the wick and check that there is paraffin in the lamp and the wick is in good shape:

This lamp is currently set up for the white aspect - to show a white light at the leading end of the locomotive. The red filter lives in a parking slot on the side.

You move the red aspect to the slot in the front of the lamp to use at the trailing end of the locomotive:

Once you've sorted out the filters you can light the lamp if it is still dark or leave it for later; then you hang them on the lamp irons in the appropriate position for the class of train you are hauling. For now, we hang them on the centre bottom bracket to show the signalman we are travelling Light Engine.

Then it's back to cleaning duties; first a bit of oil and 120 grit emery tape to clean the rust spots off the coupling rods:

While you are there, notice the centre driving wheels on this long 2-10-0 locomotive have no flanges - this is to allow it to negotiate tighter radius curves.

Cleaning done, ash pan emptied and coaled up, it is time for us to get changed and leave the yard for the day. Today is slightly unusual at least for me, since both Holt and Weybourne signal boxes are closed and there is no-one to let us out of the yard. I've been shown how to do this a couple of times, so it's time I did it on my own.

The ground frame is operated by the Long Section Staff, and contains four levers and a illuminated diagram of the yard and associated running lines:

The numbers on the levers correspond to the numbers on the diagram. First, the loco moves up to the headshunt - it is still in the yard, so can move freely. The first lever operates a signal on the road into the yard and tells anyone on that road to stop; the second operates a pair of points, which direct the running line to Sheringham into platform 1 and connect section 18A to platform 2. There is no danger of any other trains being present on the line because we have the Long Section Staff. The points are set to connect the headshunt (part of section 23) to section 18A using lever 3. The loco is signalled to move with lever 4, which operates the shunting signal 4. The loco moves out of the headshunt progressively moving into sections 23 and 18A, lighting the lamps as it goes; when it has cleared section 18A and the lamp goes out, you can set signal 4 to danger, set point 3 to connect the headshunt to the yard and set points 2 to allow the loco onto the running line. Finally, signal 1 is set to clear to allow loco movements out of the yard and into the headshunt.

You next switch out the ground frame by removing the Long Section Staff from the switch box and take it back to the loco in its holder. Next, order breakfast from the buffet.

On this trip, I noticed that Fireman Henry was careful with the coal, using it very sparingly. We arrived Light Engine at Sheringham with the fire like this:

See the firebars?

We had about 50 minutes before we had to leave, plenty of time to build the fire up and of course we did not want it either smoking in the station or blowing off. Fireman Henry knew that to go from Weybourne down to Sheringham used very little steam; while we were in the station he added coal (and so did I, later in the day while firing under his instruction) to the back and sides of the fire; he used the air coming through the middle to keep the smoke down while the fresh coal caught and he did not fill the middle until we were just past the Golf Club crossing, getting ready for Dead Man's hill.

One of the key elements of the training that you only achieve by practical experience is the application of your route knowledge - especially around changes to gradients - to the loco and how you manage it. The railway has a gradient profile which looks like this:

I've added some extra notes to the published drawing to help associate the gradients with particular features. These pictures illustrate those features and are taken from the NNR Route Knowledge training video, and run in the up direction from Sheringham to Holt.

You should note that these pictures are screengrabs from a video whose copyright is owned by the NNR and are shown here as an additional, personal aid to enable better understanding of the route, for volunteer crew on the NNR. They cannot be used for any commercial purpose.

It's important, even vital, to use this information to know when the driver will need steam and when he can coast and secondly when the coverage of water over the top of the firebox will rise and fall with gradient, acceleration and braking. Water is consumed as steam is used, and the use of the regulator raises the level in the glass masking the true level, so you need to get this information in your head.

Here goes:

The line from Sheringham Station rises at 1 in 330 until you get to the petrol station before Golf Club crossing, when it starts to fall at 1 in 333:

There's a few buildings on the landward side at the foot of the embankment, past the allotments. Here the line starts to rise at 1 in 97 - the is the beginning of Dead Man's Hill:

There's an occupation crossing at the top. Just past this, the line levels out:

Then at Dead Man's bridge, which takes the footpath up into Sheringham Park, the line starts to fall again at 1 in 100:

It falls into a cutting and curves inland towards Weybourne. When you emerge from the cutting the line levels out for a couple of track panels before it starts to rise at 1 in 80:

It continues to rise until you get to Weybourne station. For a short distance, from the beginning of the up platform ramp to ust the other side of Bridge 302, it rises at 1 in 264:

Then, when you leave the station it starts to rise up Kelling Bank at 1 in 80 again:

The hill continues up past Kelling Heath Halt, up through the cutting to Windpump Crossing:

After Windpump Crossing it falls at 1 in 214 until you are about half way around Averies Curve, when it starts to rise again at 1 in 104:

It rises at 1 in 104 for a short distance until you get to Bridge 299:

Then, it's level until you get to the Bridge Road Carriage Sheds when it starts to rise again at 1 in 451:

This gentle slope carries on until you reach Holt, when it gets a little steeper rising through the station at 1 in 279:

The headshunt at the end of platform 2 is level.

Here endeth the lesson.

We did four round trips on this turn; I fired up on two trips and down on one, which was great experience. I tried to carry on observing, sitting in the fireman's seat to do so and to perform the other duties, washing the floor with the slacker pipe which fortunately was not leaking today.

Come the end of the day, we took on water at Sheringham for the evening crew and drove the loco back to Weybourne to meet the relief crew. We cleaned the fire and ashed out before signing off.

As it was Hallowe'en, the loco wore a carved pumpkin on the lamp bracket that evening:

I hope you enjoyed reading about my latest adventure on the North Norfolk Railway. Here's a link to some of my past railway turns:

• Railway adventures with the wannabe retired engineer

Turn 10 - Third Man on the 9F, for a while at least

Turn 10 was another yellow timetable day with an 06:00 start, near the end of the season and approach the day when the clocks go back, so it was very dark when we arrived at Weybourne with Cleaner Peter and Duty Fitter Rudy. We found the blackboard in the signing on area updated to show us rostered to the 9F, which is a bit a treat as the 'Black Prince' is the largest, most powerful loco on the NNR fleet.

Here she is:

From Wiki, with a bit of editing:

The 9F was the last in a series of standardised locomotive classes designed for British Railways during the 1950s, and was intended for use on fast, heavy freight trains over long distances. It was one of the most powerful steam locomotive types ever constructed in Britain, and successfully performed its intended duties. The class was given the nickname of 'Spaceships', due to its size and shape. 

At various times during the 1950s, the 9Fs worked passenger trains with great success, indicating the versatility of the design, sometimes considered to represent the ultimate in British steam development. Several experimental variants were constructed in an effort to reduce costs and maintenance, although these met with varying degrees of success.

The total number built was 251, production being shared between Swindon (53) and Crewe Works (198). The last of the class, 92220 Evening Star, was the final steam locomotive to be built by British Railways, in 1960. Withdrawals began in 1964, with the final locomotives removed from service in 1968. Several examples have survived into the preservation era in varying states of repair, including Evening Star

92203 was in service for just 8 years with BR, before withdrawal in November 1967. The locomotive was purchased straight from BR by the artist David Shepherd for £3,000 and moved to the Longmoor Military Railway. He named her Black Prince, a name never carried by 92203 in British Railways service. On closure of the LMR, 92203 moved to Eastleigh Depot and then, in 1973, to the East Somerset Railway, where it was based until 1998. During this period 92203 visited several other heritage railways and in September 1982 hauled the heaviest freight train in Britain, 2,198 tonnes, at Foster Yeoman’s Tor Works. After being overhauled at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway in 2004, she worked there until 2011. She then moved to the North Norfolk Railway and re-entered service there in 2014 after receiving an extensive overhaul. She was purchased by the railway in 2015.

Climbing aboard the footplate, you have to negotiate the doors. This is tricky in the dark, off the top of the steps, with your torch in your mouth and your bag over your shoulder. Oh, and they are bolted from the inside: 

These can be folded and pinned back against the tender so that you can have some room while doing your inspection and lighting up.

During inspection, it was obvious that the right hand gauge glass was leaking - she had been in steam the day before and still had 30 psi on the clock, so, when you operated the gauge glass isolation valves to open (they are closed on disposal) there was water pissing out of the bottom nut.

These are easy to fix - there is just a rubber seal around the glass tube held in place by two brass nuts, hand tightened - they seem to come loose in service as I have found them like this before.

You have to remove the gauge protector to access them:

The front of the protector sits on the bottom nut while the back, with the black and white stripes, just hooks on.

When you sign on, you read the daily log sheet from the previous time your loco went out - in this case, the day before. One of the things yesterday's driver picked up was the fact that the slacker pipe valve was leaking - the slacker pipe is a rubber hose supplied with hot water from the injector feed - you use it for hosing down the footplate to keep it clean from the coal dust that inevitably lands there.

Chatting with Fitter Rudy, it was decided that would not get fixed today - not with 30 psi behind it anyway, so whilst I stuck my head in the firebox to check out the brick arch, the stays and the fusible plugs Cleaner Peter went off to clean the smokebox. All was well in there, so I could clean the grate and build the fire.

The 9F like all BR Standards has a rocking grate which is easy to clean. We removed the baffle plate and set to laying coal over the grate - me shovelling right handed & Peter shovelling left handed. There's something like 40 square feet of grate to cover, which doesn't take too long with two of you and with it done, I laid pallet wood all over the top. This was followed by paraffin soaked rags which I threw into the corners, along the sides and into the middle, leaving a long timber and a large rag to use as a torch for lighting up. We shut the fire door for a few minutes to let it get going.

Having a look a few minutes later, it's obvious that there is a black spot in the far left front corner - I lob another rag in there to get it going and leave it with the door shut a bit longer. Repeating the process, I decide that it needs a couple more bits of wood and I have a couple left for that purpose; Cleaner Peter goes off to get started on the paintwork.

The fire is going nicely now and I contemplate my next move. The fire doesn't need any more attention for a bit and I'm unsure what to do, so I sit back and take stock. I'll need the blower soon, so I crack the blower valve to make sure I can open it when I need it and nothing happens - is that because I don't have enough pressure? Doubtful, I have 30 psi on the clock and I'm sure I could at least hear the blower - no, the issue is the main steam valve on the manifold is shut. I know it is shut, because it has a big sign hanging on it which says 'shut'. You can see it in one of the pictures.

It has a special tool to open it and it is very tight - one of those times when you are afraid you will strip a thread if you give it too much stick. In this case, the handle of the special tool is perilously close to either the pressure gauges or the gauge glasses, neither of which want to be broken at the moment. Cleaner Peter, who has been on the railway for 9 years, is a little more confident with it than I am prepared to be and we get it open. Steam rushes around the various systems and my blower is working.

Fireman Joe has arrived, it is getting light, and I brief him on what I have done. The fire is going well and Joe is happy, so I am left in charge of the fire to raise steam and clean the footplate. I put a round of coal on, and open the blower nearly half a turn. This has Joe on the footplate fairly quickly, explaining that while some drivers would want to bring it on quickly, we are in no rush.

What you forget is that these 9Fs and some of the most powerful locos to grace the country's rails, hauling huge freight trains and running around on our little railway with five on the back is child's play to them - you don't need much steam, so you can afford to take it easy and bring up the pressure slowly. We turn the blower back to maybe a quarter open. I set about cleaning the footplate.

Cleaner Peter is on the high running boards - you can clean these locos without ladders:

We filled the tender as soon as we signed on - 4500 gallons is a lot of water, and you will need half of that on four round trips:

Unfortunately, the rain has also filled the coal space. I sweep some of the water out as I don't want to deaden my lovely fire before it's got going.

By 8:15, I've been on shed for over 2 hours and the fire has been alight for maybe an hour and a half. I have 80 psi on the clock now:

As the pressure rises, the blower provides more and more draught and steam raising becomes a question of keeping the fire under control. Blowing off is not allowed at this time in the morning, and at any time of day wastes water and coal.

There's more to do. We need a bucket of cold water for the day, for washing and for emergencies; we need to make sure we have a burns kit, the two red flags and the spare gauge glasses and seals. These are all safe in one of the lockers:

We check the broom, brush and the fire irons as well.

With 160 psi on the clock we are ready to test the injectors and the brakes; that done, Driver Matt takes us back to the pit to ash out. This is no sweat - ashing out is easy on these but there is some doubt over whether we should do it. There's a notice on the board saying that we don't ash out during prep - only on disposal, but eventually it's decided that we do it so I open the four doors in turn and hose the ash down into the ashpan:

Then, it's a simple matter to operate the lever and drop the ash in the pit:

And that is more or less it. Fitter Rudy provides a couple of buckets of coal from the loader, and I go and change. Before we get off shed, Peter and I trim the coal to avoid any nasty accidents.

On the way to the changing room, I pass the Fowler 7F whose pony truck is out waiting for a new spring:

And then we are off. The first trip is light engine down to Sheringham to collect our train and our breakfast, then we start our first round trip; Collecting the token as we leave Sheringham I assume the observer role as Joe takes charge of the fire. I make sure I am calling out all the signals and cautionary points, like the level crossing at the Golf Club and soon I am dropping the token into the arms of the Weybourne signalman. I get off at Weybourne and wait for the signal to clear - the platform is curved here and the driver cannot see the guard standing at the far end of the train. I wait on the platform until I get the long section staff from the signalman and until I see the guard give the 'right away' - blowing his whistle and showing the green flag. I climb aboard, tell the driver that he has the road (i.e. the platform starter signal is clear), the token is aboard and that he has the green flag - and we are off up the 1 in 80 bank to Kelling.

Then it's Holt station, and we drop the token at the catcher by the signal box for the guard to collect. We move up Platform 1 and come to a halt, and the driver pushes back a little to let me uncouple the train. That done, we push the plunger to request permission to pass the stop board and run around the train and we move up into the headshunt by Platform 2. I climb off again and change the points, telling the driver points are switched and we head back to the other end of the platform where the guard will operate the signals and points from the ground frame to let us into Platform 1. The signal box is closed today.

The allows us back onto the train and I couple up. Now it's my turn to fire on the way back.

On the way back through Weybourne

The NNR, though relatively short has an interesting gradient profile which sees it rising from Sheringham up to Holt, as shown in the railway operating manual:

At Sheringham station, we are something like 70 ft above sea level rising to 130 ft at Weybourne and then 240 ft at Holt so you can see that in the up direction the demand for steam is considerably higher than the down direction, where we can coast much of the way. This means that on the way back to Sheringham I will be tending the fire, filling in holes as they appear and as we approach Sheringham I will start to build it up for the journey back up hill.

I took this picture at Holt, 10 minutes before we set off; the fire is steady with no holes - all the coal that went on on the trip up is incandescent but is no longer flaming. It's not making much smoke and we are sitting at 225 psi.

I've read somewhere that the fireman shouldn't move his feet. Putting a few shovelfuls in from a position beside the fire soon has Driver Matt and Fireman Joe correcting this behaviour. They say:

• If you shovel like that your back wont last the day and you will be flat out on it for the rest of the month
• stand in front of the middle of the tender facing backwards
• plant your left foot and don't move it
• with a lightly loaded shovel, move your right foot backwards and aim the shovel at the firehole
• hold the end of the shovel firmly in your left hand and slide the shovel through your right hand into the hole, twisting it or flicking the end up according to where you want it to go

Now that works quite well, as I was to find out later in the day though not in the way I had imagined. The journey back to Sheringham was uneventful, though slightly unusual as there were a lot of passengers alighting at Kelling's request stop. We ran around at Sheringham, refilled the tea cups and made our way back to Weybourne where we stopped.

For the rest of the day, unfortunately. We'd noticed a couple of leaks - a minor one from a rear cylinder cover and a fairly major one from a washout plug, which was merrily fizzing away. These are taper plugs which provide access to the boiler interior for cleaning and they seal by crushing the threads together until there is no clearance. This one however had either loosened itself, or whatever was sealing the thread during boiler test was no longer stuck in there, and had produced a leak. Of course, we had no idea whether it would last indefinitely like this or whether it would come out in the next few minutes, the effect of which would be catastrophic - there are several tonnes of water in there, all of it above saturation conditions; releasing the pressure would see it vapourise as fast as 225 psi could push it out of that hole. We had no choice but to fail the engine and take it back to the yard.

The lovely Class 20 took our train on to Holt, with Fireman Joe as Second Man and Fitter Mark driving:

With help from the signalman, we took the 9F back to the yard and stabled on the diesel pit road. I stayed on the footplate to look after the fire, which was burning well - the boiler pressure was hovering close to 240 psi and would blow off fairly soon - while Driver Matt, Fitter Paul and Chief Engineer Keith climbed up to have a look at the failed washout plug.

It was clear that we were not going out again that day and we moved the loco onto one of the shed roads to cool. Driver Matt took over from Fitter Mark on the Class 20, and left me to nurse the boiler along, adding water to keep the pressure down while keeping the doors and dampers closed. After a couple of hours, the fire had cooled enough that the boiler wasn't making pressure and I went off to look for something to eat and something to do - it was five hours until I was expected home and I wanted to wait for the crew to return to update my Training Schedule with the days events.

My job was to prep the WD to go into service the next day. It was cold, as it had been out of service for a few days and would need a warming fire and a clean. I decided to sit down for a tea break with a pastie and a bit of cake. I took a look around the footplate, just to let you know what it's like up there:

Since the WD was cold, I needed to light a fire in it so that tomorrow's crew would be able to get it in steam without turning in at a ridiculous hour. This gave me the chance to get in some shoveling practice, which went really well:

Looks great doesn't it. Unfortunately, lighting this up would have had it in steam by tea time which was not what was required. I had to perform another railway 'first' and get in the firebox to clean out the fresh coal... Actually, that's a bit of an exaggeration - what I needed to do was bank it up under the door and in the back corners, which didn't take very long.

It also gave me a chance to look at the dampers on the WD. It has a long door on each side of the grate, which is bolted shut - they are for ashing out:

It's got two similar doors at the back of the grate, one on each side which act as dampers:

They can be fully open or fully closed and are operated by this lever:

I lit the fire with the dampers shut - no point in having them open when half the grate is empty. You can see it's black toward the front and the fire is just burning under the backhead:

I spent the rest of the day tending the fire and polishing:

No.2 Injector Steam Valve

Vacuum Brake Ejector

Steam Brake Valve

Don't know what this is. Sanding Valve?

WD Controls

I hope you enjoyed reading about my latest adventure on the North Norfolk Railway.